President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Africa's first democratically elected female president, has been awarded The Nobel Peace Prize. She shared the award with women's rights campaigner Leymah Gbowee, also from Liberia, and Tawakkul Karman, a female icon of the protest movement in Yemen.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureates, from left: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, her compatriot Leymah Gbowee and Yemini 'Arab Spring' activist Tawakkol Karman greet the audience
Three women who fought injustice, dictatorship and sexual violence in Liberia and Yemen have accepted the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, calling on repressed women worldwide to rise up againstmale supremacy.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is Africa's first democratically elected female president.The 73-year-old was elected president of Liberia in 2005 and won re-election in October. She is widely credited with helping her country emerge from an especially brutal civil war. On accepting the award in Oslo, Noway The President admonished women through out the world to "find their Voices". Please read the entire acceptance Lecture>>>>>
The Nobel chairman noted that she initially supported Charles Taylor but later dissociated herself from the former rebel leader who is now awaiting judgment from the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Sierra Leone.
Leymah Gbowee, also fom Liberia, is a women's rights activist.The 39-year-old challenged Liberia's warlords in her campaign against rape. In 2003, she led hundreds of female protesters through Monrovia to demand swift disarmament of fighters, who continued to prey on women, despite a peace deal. Read Leymah Gbowee's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance Lecture>>>>>>
Tawakkul Karman is a female icon of the protest movement in Yemen.A journalist and founder of the human rights group Women Journalists Without Chains, she also is a member of the Islamic party Islah. She is the first Arab woman to win the prize and at 32, the youngest peace laureate ever. You may read Tawakkul's acceptance lecture here >>>>>
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